eza Aslan, a religiousstudies scholar whohosts “Believer,” a CNNprogram, has run intoflak over its firstepisode, which airedIn an attempt to draw atten-tion to diverse religious cultureswith surprise, Aslan channeledthe likes of Anthony Bourdain’sculinary “Parts Unknown” andshowed him eating cookedhuman brain and drinking alco-hol from a human skull with theAghoris in Varanasi.

Also included was a threat to
cut off Aslan’s head and, in
another case, of one sadhu, in
frustration, begin eating, then
throwing his own waste at the
fleeing camera crew.

Aslan, who is also a professor
of creative writing at the
University of California,
Riverside, came into the national
spotlight after some television
program hosts interviewed him
about his book, “Zealot: The Life
and Times of Jesus of Nazareth.”
The questions that ignored his
academic research included
how, as a Muslim, he could
write about a Christian icon,
or what he thought about
extreme practices in Muslim
countries.

He had then pointed out
that he was a researcher and
that any Christian academic
could write about
Mohammed, and that there
were other “Muslim countries,” such as Malaysia,
which did not engage in the
extreme practices seen in
places like Saudi Arabia.

Given that background,
Indian Americans have
expressed some surprise at how
Aslan also flirted with the sensational and the macabre in the
very first episode of the series,
especially when Indians are
among those not feeling very
secure in America.

“This is a time when other
cultures should be humanized
and depicted with care by
the mainstream news
media,” Vamsee Juluri, a
professor of media studies at
the University of San
Francisco, wrote in The
Huffington Post.

“It is one saddening realitythat despite having had immi-grants in America for so manydecades now, a major newschannel like CNN still cannotdo better than the old ‘IndianaJones and the Temple ofDoom’ sort of story when itcomes to India,” he wrore. “Butwhat is even more callous is thefact that CNN and Reza Aslanseem oblivious to the kind ofdiscomfort and even danger thatimages like this could create forSouth Asians, Sikhs, Muslimsand other brown people inAmerica.”Sanjay Puri of the UnitedStates India Political ActionCommittee told PTI, “We arevery disappointed. This is anissue that is of deep concern tothe Indian American communityevidenced by the large numberof calls/emails we have received.

In a charged environment, ashow like this can create a per-ception about Indian Americanswhich could make them morevulnerable to further attacks.”Juluri went on todescribe as a hoaxa description ofVaranasi,Hinduism’s holiestplace, as the “cityof the dead.”Though Aslan didhas yet to respondto a request fromIndia Abroad forcomment he has putup this defense in aFacebook post:“As someonewho writes andspeaks about reli-gion for a living, Iknow better thanmost the sensitivi-ties of the topic,and I have spent much of mycareer trying my best toaddress those sensitivities. Inthe case of the episode on theAghor – which, as I repeatedlystate on camera and in voice-over, are not representative ofHinduism but are instead anextreme Hindu sect who rejectthe fundamental Hindu distinc-tion between purity and pollu-tion – I tried to ease the concernsof those who may have missedthis fundamental distinction byproviding multiple articles andvideos on cnn.com that addressthe beliefs of Hinduism anddebunk its myths.

“I also commissioned mygood friend Varun Soni (dean ofreligious life at the University ofSouthern California), America’sfirst Hindu-American chaplain,to write an essay on the siteaddressing the complexities ofthe caste system, and why theAghor fight so hard to remove itfrom Indian soci-ety. In almostevery interview Idid about theshow I talked atlength about theissue underlyingthe episode,including the flu-idity of the castesystem, the prob-lems inherentamongst theuntouchableclass, and howdevout Hindus ofall stripes areworking tireless-ly to overcomeboth.

“What’s more,I had numerous meetings byphone and in person with repre-sentatives of the Hindu-American Foundation, who,“There is also a trailer thatdescribes the spiritual signifi-cance of Aghori practice, corebeliefs, and scenes of a tranquilschool where children of allcastes and creeds were beingeducated by practicing Hindusliving the Hindu Aghori faith ofloving, serving, and caring with-out discrimination...”“The foundation urged itsmembers to watch the showthemselves before passing judg-ment. And indeed, I receivedemails from Indian and Hindu-American critics who changedtheir minds once they had actu-ally watched the show.

“Despite all this, I know that
there are still those who are
offended by the episode, especially when it comes to its treatment of such issues as caste discrimination, which remains a
touchy subject for many Hindus
in America. I have great sympathy for that position. But caste
discrimination is a very real
thing, and the attempts by the
Aghor to overcome it using the
principles of Hindu spirituality is
important to highlight.”

RHindus Enraged by CNN’s ‘Believer’

Researcher argues it was only about an extreme sect and that Hindu groups and leaders have reviewed it positively